1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for producing a glycolipid having a high content of eicosapentaenoic acid (hereinafter referred to as "EPA") from marine Chlorella
2. Related Art Statement
EPA is a substance which, in recent years, has been confirmed to be effective as a medicine for prophylaxis and therapy of brain thrombus and vascular sclerosis. This EPA has been known to be contained in fish oils and marine plants (algae) oils, and a triglyceride having an EPA purity of about 20 to 30% has been subjected to fractional purification from fish oils and commercially available as a product for healthy foods. On the other hand, an EPA ethyl ester having a EPA purity of 80% or higher as a product for pharmaceuticals has also been prepared as trial. However, fish oils have a high content of highly unsaturated fatty acids having similar properties to those of EPA such as docosahexaenoic acid; hence when fish oils are used as raw material, EPA content is at most about 20%. Thus in order to raise EPA ethyl ester content up to 80% or more, it is necessary to effect it by combining some of various processes such as urea adduct process, solvent-fractionation process, fractional distillation process, column chromatography, etc., but this is not easy due to complicated operations. Further, it cannot be said that the absorption efficiency of a high purity EPA ethyl ester within intestinal canal is so good; hence in this respect, too, a product having a high absorption efficiency has been desired.